KIOWA COUNTY, Colo. — A jury has acquitted a former Kiowa County Sheriff's deputy on one count and deadlocked on the other two charges against him in connection with the 2020 killing of a local handyman.
Quinten Stump, 30, was charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of assault in connection with the 2020 shooting death of 39-year-old Zach Gifford.
> The video above is from October 2021
A jury on Friday found Stump not guilty on one of the attempted murder counts. They deadlocked on the other attempted murder charge and the assault charge.
Prosecutors now have 90 days to schedule a new trial on those two charges, Stump's attorney said.
The shooting happened April 9, 2020, when then-Undersheriff Tracy Weisenhorn pulled over the truck in which Gifford was a passenger for the driver's failure to use a turn signal. Stump patted Gifford down for 30 seconds before reaching into his pocket for a baggy that later tested positive for methamphetamine residue. Gifford bolted. Both Weisenhorn and Stump fired at him as he ran, striking him three times in the back. He bled to death in a field minutes later.
Body camera footage and notes from interviews with both officers indicate that, given the length of the pat down, Stump likely knew Gifford was not carrying a gun but did not communicate that to Weisenhorn, who fired first.
That, as 15th District Attorney Josh Vogel explained during Stump’s preliminary hearing, partly accounts for why he chose to charge Stump, but not Weisenhorn, in January 2021. It is one of the few times a district attorney has prosecuted a law enforcement officer for an on-duty killing in Colorado.
Vogel charged Stump with two counts of attempted second-degree murder rather than second-degree murder because investigators said they could not determine which officer fired the fatal shot.
Then-Sheriff Casey Sheridan kept both officers on staff for months after the criminal investigation was concluded.
He fired Stump in November 2020 for drunkenly shooting at a traffic sign with his county-issued gun in September 2020. Sheridan fired Weisenhorn in March 2021, the same week the Colorado News Collaborative published an investigation detailing Gifford’s shooting, the history of the officers involved, the sheriff’s inaction and local residents’ silence.
RELATED: Three Bullets to the back: The striking silence around a police killing in small-town Colorado
Sheridan resigned from his elected seat in June 2021.
In April, Kiowa County reached a $9.5 million settlement with Gifford's family in connection with the shooting. The amount exceeded the county’s $7.5 million annual budget but was less than the $10 million maximum its insurance policy would cover.
RELATED: Kiowa County settles lawsuit for $9.5 million after man fatally shot in the back by deputies
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